Religion and Health – 2 hour public television documentary

This nationwide Public TV 2 hour documentary & educational outreach campaign is a unique pioneering milestone; a comprehensive overview of the complex & positive relationship between religion, spirituality & health. A subject rarely discussed in the public square. Our aim: address this problem & act as a catalyst for attitudinal change. Inherent in the program is a ‘theory of change’ inspiring new insights about dramatic advances in religious/spiritual concerns as a driving force in health care science. The goal: create awareness & understanding by addressing for lay & professional audiences universal questions that concern humankind. Distinguished program participants offer illuminating answers & provide the documentary’s narrative & cinematic backbone. We developed a comprehensive educational outreach initiative based on our documentary “Your Health: A Sacred Matter,” serving as the content mother load for all our outreach. To achieve our goal of wide dissemination targeted to strategic audiences we formed alliances with respected experts & organizations: Dr. Puchalski- George Washington Institute for Spirituality & Health; Dr. Sulmasy-University of Chicago’s Program on Medicine & Religion; HealthCare Chaplaincy; Dr. Benson-Harvard Medical School/Mass. General Hospital’s Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine; Dr. Koenig-Duke University Center for Spirituality, Theology & Health; Tuskegee Institute’s National Center for Bioethics in Research & Health Care; U.S. National Library of Medicine of the National Institute of Health. The combination of reaching mass audiences by: repeated annual airings on Public TV; influencing large targeted audiences by repurposing the documentary for use in higher & H.S. education; continuing medical education; as a resource for scholars/researchers; making the subject ubiquitous through web & social media sites; evaluating & measuring short & long term effectiveness; we will establish a project of enduring impact.